When I can’t get out to walk, for one reason or another, I like to do step aerobics with my Wii Fit system.

I have the balance board riser attachment, so I get the full step workout.  The Wii Fit system is programmed to work with the balance board alone, so the timing with the extra height is just a bit different. Until I added the riser I hadn’t realized just how much I was relying on the feedback from the game system.

In the stepping programs I use, I am stepping in time to the animated people on the TV monitor. When my timing is just right I am rewarded with “Perfect” flashing on the screen and a higher score for each step. If I’m slightly off I get a disappointing “Okay”. If my rhythm is completely off, or I fail to step in the sweet spot on the balance board, I get nothing.

After adding the riser to my routine I found myself struggling to achieve all those “perfect” marks I was used to and it frustrated me.  I was becoming increasingly discouraged until one morning when it dawned on me that I was getting the same aerobic exercise whether I got any score, at all.

I laughed to think of all the pressure I had been putting on myself just to see the word, “perfect”, when it made no difference, at all. I wasn’t in a high-point contest with anyone. My goal was to get exercise for my health. I was achieving that, no matter what the video game was telling me.

I had gotten caught up in the need to be perfect and lost sight of my real goal.

In today’s climate of zero-tolerance,  “failure is not an option”, and the constant pressure to be the best, it is important to remember that perfection is not a realistic standard.

Every one of the millions of people on earth today is unique, each one is a miracle, and not one is perfect.

When we set unreasonable demands on ourselves that tends to carry over onto our demands of others. It makes us less compassionate, less forgiving, less loving.

We should all strive to make the most of our gifts, talents and opportunities; to do the best we can at whatever we do.  When we release ourselves from the bondage of the quest for perfection, we become free to find the joy in our best efforts, instead.

Perfection exits only in God’s love, freely given.   Let go of perfect in your own life.  Let go and let God.